Electric arc welding involves a supply of welding wire, in a drum or on a spool, which wire is driven by a wire feeder from the supply toward the workpiece to be welded. The wire passes through a contact sleeve to connect current from a power source to the welding operation. During automatic or semi-automatic welding, the wire is fed toward the workpiece as a controlled welding current is directed to the contact sleeve. To feed the wire toward the workpiece, the welder is provided with a wire feeder having a series of feed rolls driven by an electric motor at a welding wire feed speed (WFS) controlled by an input voltage to the motor. The level of voltage to the motor is a parameter that controls the wire feed speed during the welding operation. When the welding process is started by a trigger or other start sequence device, the motor rotates to drive the feed roll, usually through a gear box, to properly carry welding wire to the workpiece welding operation. At the start of the weld sequence, the wire is driven toward the workpiece before an arc has been created. In some welders, the speed of driving the wire toward the workpiece is a fixed slow speed known as a run-in speed. After the wire has created an arc, the motor shifts from the running speed to the control wire feed speed necessary for the particular process being implemented. The reduced fixed run-in speed is needed only at the start sequence before the arc has been created to initiate the welding process. When the wire contacts the workpiece the arc is established and the run-in speed should be terminated immediately in favor of the wire feed speed. In the past, an automatic control circuit has been proposed where the current in the welding wire is sensed to indicate when an arc has been created. At that time, the wire feed speed is shifted from the run-in speed to the wire feed speed (WFS). The wire feed speed is a preset level determined by the controller for use in a particular welding process. The disadvantage is that separate wiring in the welding circuit is required.